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Posted Sept. 15, 2009

Terrelle Pryor - NFL QB?

I don't have time to watch game film of sophomores since it is generally a waste of my time, but I paid close attention to Pryor versus USC last Saturday night. I usually replay a play three or four times just so I can technically understand what happens. You often see NFL coaching staffs do this in meeting rooms.

Pryor has great arm strength and excellent elusiveness. Most people watching Terrelle Pryor fall in love with him running away from average collegiate talent. We saw it with Vince Young and Alex Smith, but I think NFL teams are going to more heavily scrutinize these quarterbacks in the future because Young and Smith completely busted.

Pryor has great upside, but so did Vince Young. Just because you have upside doesn't mean there is a high probability that you will live up to it.

Pryor displayed horrendous mechanics against USC and lacked field vision. He has time to correct this, but I am just not sold that he will. The hard-working Tim Tebow has the same footwork and release that he did when he was a sophomore. Andre' Woodson worked really hard with the Giants to improve his release, but he couldn't.

Pryor has horrible footwork to begin with. He should have shuffled his feet at times and adjusted, but he was often off track here. His left foot would not be in line with his receiver, often causing him to miss his target. He gets lazy in this area, and it must be improved if he wants to be an accurate quarterback at the next level.

Pryor's release is also very exaggerated. As opposed to winding up with the football, Pryor doesn't wind up at all. He usually short arms the ball, not bringing it back to get some velocity into the throw. He aims the football as opposed to simply letting go of it and allowing his arm strong do the work.

Pryor also can't read defenses. On his first interception, he thought USC was playing man coverage, but the middle linebacker Chris Galippo was comfortably in the Cover 2. Pryor didn't see him at all despite Galippo being a couple yards from his target, and it cost Ohio State seven huge points. If this interception doesn't happen, I highly doubt USC wins because they couldn't move the football on Ohio State until their last drive of the game. Pryor also lacked field vision on the play, failing to identifying Galippo and he didn't impress me going through his progression reads.

The Ohio State signal-caller does a great job of extending plays, but he has a very long ways to go and Vince Young isn't helping him.

I also read a quote which I think shows bad leadership on Pryor's part: "The ball just went the wrong way, like I keep saying."

According to Pryor, Ohio State didn't lose because they didn't make enough plays, but because they got unlucky. Pryor should have said something like, "USC played very good football and they ultimately made more plays than we did. We didn't capitalize on our opportunities, but we are going to work our butts off to get better and win the Big Ten championship."

Take a page out of Tim Tebow's book, Terrelle, when it comes to leadership.

Mr. Pryor: Luck is all you might have on Draft Day if you don't make serious technical improvements.

the browns are NOT taking a qb at #1 overall who is a FAR inferior prospect compared to a player of myles garrett's caliber. also, kizer as a first round pick is a joke of an analysis. he's barely clinging to his starting job in college. he's a second rounder at best.